Meteor Blazes Over Oregon Skies

3 years ago
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People across the Pacific Northwest watched in astonishment Thursday as a fiery ball of light streaked across the night sky.
While many speculated they were seeing a meteor, astronomer Jonathan McDowell at the Center for Astrophysics said the streaking light actually came from the Falcon 9 rocket launched by SpaceX on March 4.

On Twitter, McDowell said the rocket "failed to make a deorbit burn," and the event people witnessed around 9 p.m. Thursday was the rocket reentering Earth's atmosphere after 22 days in orbit.
He said a breakup of debris like the one people saw happens about 40 miles above the Earth, far above the flying zone for planes. He said this is the 14th piece of "space junk" with a mass over one ton that has reentered the atmosphere since the start of 2021.
People reported seeing the rocket debris across from across the region, including the Oregon Coast, Salem, the Portland metro area, Southwest Washington and the Seattle area. Some people reported hearing explosions in the sky as it went by.
People shared videos of the event on social media.
The rocket delivered Starlink satellites, built in Redmond, Washington, into orbit earlier this week, the Times reported.
SpaceX said Wednesday that the Falcon 9′s first stage returned to Earth and landed as planned on its ocean-going barge off the coast of Florida.

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